Carnivorous plants on Penang Hill

Nepenthes albomarginata, native of Penang

The Penang Botanic Garden is nothing spectacular. It's more or less a public park that offers nice picnic spots and photo opportunities for wedding parties. But there are real botanical marvels nearby, they're just very well hidden. Reaching them involves two hours of hiking up Penang Hill and a 15 minute walk further along the ridge. There lies the Monkey Cup Garden that specializes in carnivorous plants, specifically those from the genus Nepenthes, also called monkey cups. For the less hiking obsessed, the garden can also be reached via funicular railway and a short ride on a golf cart.

View from Penang Hill

The enthusiastic guide at the garden showed me all the different species of these fascinating plants, gathered from all over the world, many of them from southeast Asia, and some from as far away as South America. Some are small and some are large, in fact, according to the guide, the largest ones can trap small mammals such as rats. Some have lids that close after they trap their prey and some remain open, for the rain to dilute the enzymes. Some grow on the ground and some form vines that twine their way up high. Common to all is that they employ various mechanisms to trap insects and other small animals so that they eventually digest them.

Here is a photo gallery of a few of the many varieties of these plants.